Sharpening perceptions of reality and providing spiritual guidance for those in the crux of wilderness experiences. Substantial spiritual nourishment for those who know or sense that Christ is anything but shallow. Encouraging readers to radically (which to Christ is normal) serve God and others.
The author is teaching herself and others to read the world through the lens of the gospel and to become active participants in the local and worldwide body of Christ.

Nov 22, 2009

The Discipline of the Routine

Monotony. How we'd love to escape it. Cleaning our rooms, making our beds, doing dishes or laundry--none of these are very exciting. Yet, in the last several years, I've learned a thing or two about routine chores. For me, they are spiritual disciplines that fight against the sin of acedia. At least in my case, that is what laundry has come to be, an antidote to acedia (or sloth). When I do laundry, I do what I do not want to do, what I would rather put off or have someone else do for me. I should clarify--folding and neatly putting away the laundry is what I dislike doing. I have often contemplated hiring someone else to do my laundry and neatly put it away. Of course, I'd wash and put away the undergarments. But there is something about laundry in my life, it stacks up and has to be done over and over again, there is something about it that I find very tedious. I'll wash dishes or clean the bathroom or pick up...but laundry for me is a spiritual discipline.

At the end of her book, Acedia & me: A Marriage, Monks, and A Writer's Life, Kathleen Norris shares a collection of definitions of acedia. One that I found particulary helpful was by Jean Bethke Eishtain who has this to say about it:

I take sloth to mean not simply inactivity but acquiescence in the conventions of one's day: a refusual to take up the burden of self-criticism; a falling into the zeitgeist unthinkingly, and, in so doing, forgettng that we are made to [citing Karl Barth] "serve God wittingly, in the tangle of our minds." . . . Pride and sloth may seem to be antitheses but there is "profound correspondence"between the Promethan and the "unheroic and trivial form of sloth" . . . Sloth is a type of escapism, an evasion of responsibility. . .

Yes, I'd like to flee the responsibility of laundry and do something that I find more interesting. But in doing laundry, I combat sloth or acedia, which is good for my soul.

I appreciate this book. And the above is but one definiton of acedia. I recommend that we read the book, for in reading it we see ourselves and learn about a sin that is prevalent but rarely spoken of.

Gracious Christians Unite!

Marlena's Words in Other Places ~ click on the links

Read Old Books. They Expand Our Souls.

One excellent way to see how much our culture's passing weather patterns have influenced us is to read old books. If you recieve all your information from contemporary writers, Christian or secular, you will never perceive whole concepts that people in other generations could see. (For example, earlier generations of Christians perceived a power in sexual purity that eludes us completely; we can only fall back on "don'ts"). Every Christian should always have at his bedside at least one book that is at least fifty years old--the older the better.

"To be commanded to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But this is the first and great commandment nonetheless. Even in the wilderness - especially in the wilderness - you shall love him." —Frederick Buechner

Las Lajas Cathedral

About Me

In seminary, my pastor friends dubbed me a modern-day Christian mystic, a contemplative. I've been called to preach through the pen (or keyboard as technology has it). I've accepted my gifts and hope to nourish readers with the nourishment I've received. I'm married to my soulmate,Shawn. He's a philosophy professor. And I graduated from Northeastern Seminary (a truly great place) with an M.Div. and gave birth to a beautiful human being, my daughter Iliana, almost within the same week. I am a regular contributing writer for Christianity Today's Her.meneutics Blog and a proud member of the Redbud Writers Guild. If you are nourished by what you read, please pass it along to another wilderness traveler.